Cell specific reference signal (crs) muting for even further enhanced machine type communication (efemtc)

ABSTRACT

A network device such as an evolved NodeB (eNB) or next generation NodeB (gNB) can configure a set of user equipment (UE) for cell reference signal (CRS) muting in order to provide better channel quality and power efficiency in communications. Where an eNB mutes CRS transmissions that are not needed by any UE, an improvement in downlink throughput and reduce connection drop rate can be generated. A CRS muting capability can be determined based on a user equipment (UE) capability information. According to the CRS muting capability of a UE, the CRS can be transmitted at frequency locations based on CRS muting configuration parameters.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/487,226 filed on Aug. 20, 2019, which is a National Phase entryapplication of International Patent Application No. PCT/US2018/023769filed Mar. 22, 2018, which claims priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/476,590 filed Mar. 24, 2017, entitled “DESIGN OF CRSMUTING FOR EVEN FURTHER ENHANCED MACHINE TYPE COMMUNICATION (EFEMTC)”,and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/476,012 filedMar. 24, 2017, entitled “DESIGN OF CRS MUTING FOR EVEN FURTHER ENHANCEDMACHINE TYPE COMMUNICATION (EFEMTC)”, the contents of which are hereinincorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to wireless technology, and morespecifically to techniques for employing cell specific reference signal(CRS) muting for Machine Type Communication (MTC), especially evenfurther enhanced MTC (EFEMTC) communications.

BACKGROUND

Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards andprotocols to transmit data between a node (e.g., a transmission station)and a wireless device (e.g., a mobile device), or a user equipment (UE).Some wireless devices communicate using orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) in a downlink (DL) transmission and singlecarrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) in an uplink (UL)transmission. Standards and protocols that use orthogonalfrequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) for signal transmission includethe third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution(LTE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.16 standard (e.g., 802.16e, 802.16m), which is commonly known toindustry groups as WiMAX (Worldwide interoperability for MicrowaveAccess), and the IEEE 802.11 standard, which is commonly known toindustry groups as WiFi.

In 3GPP radio access network (RAN) LTE systems, the access node can bean Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node Bs(also commonly denoted as evolved Node Bs, enhanced Node Bs, eNodeBs, oreNBs) with or without one or more Radio Network Controllers (RNCs),which can communicate with the UE. The DL transmission can be acommunication from an access point/node or base station (e.g., a macrocell device, an eNodeB, an eNB, WiFi node, or other similar networkdevice) to the UE, and the UL transmission can be a communication fromthe wireless network device to the node.

Additionally, the Internet of Things (IoT) is beginning to growsignificantly, as consumers, businesses, and governments recognize thebenefit of connecting devices to the internet. A significant segment ofthis industry is intended to operate over vast areas under theinitiative low-power wide-area networking (LP-WAN), which is supposed toprovide a global solution for both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Thefollowing cellular technologies recently standardized in 3GPP are meantto operate in licensed spectrum: enhanced coverage global system formobile communication (GSM) based on general packet radio service (GPRS)standard in the context of Rel-13; the evolution of the LTE machine typecommunication (eMTC) solution (commonly called Cat M1) which is based onan evolution of the legacy Cat 0; and narrowband (NB) IOT, a new nonbackward compatible radio access technology which is specificallyoptimized in order to satisfy the requirements required for typical IoTsolutions (commonly called Cat NB1), such as with enhanced MTC (eMTC).Other category and above technologies can include further enhanced MTC(FeMTC), even further enhanced MTC (efeMTC/EFEMTC) or the like.

In LTE networks, minimizing the inter-cell interference, or inter-RadioAccess Technology (RAT) interference, for example, can help increase thechances that downlink higher order modulation (e.g., 64QAM, 256QAM) canbe utilized to increase the downlink throughput for users experiencinggood coverage conditions. Cell reference signal (CRS) muting, where aneNB or network device mutes one or more CRS transmissions that are notneeded by a UE, has been shown to improve downlink throughput and reduceconnection drop rate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example user equipments (UEs)in a network with network components useable in connection with variousaspects described herein.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating example components of a device that canbe employed in accordance with various aspects discussed herein.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating example interfaces of basebandcircuitry that can be employed in accordance with various aspectsdiscussed herein.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a system or device employable ata UE that enables cell reference signal (CRS) muting according tovarious aspects described herein.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system or device employable atan eNB/gNB or other base station that enables cell reference signal(CRS) muting according to various aspects described herein.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example method employable at an eNB/gNBthat enables cell reference signal (CRS) muting according to variousaspects described herein.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an example method employable at a UE thatenables cell reference signal (CRS) muting.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure will now be described with reference to theattached drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals are used torefer to like elements throughout, and wherein the illustratedstructures and devices are not necessarily drawn to scale. As utilizedherein, terms “component,” “system,” “interface,” and the like areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, hardware, software(e.g., in execution), and/or firmware. For example, a component can be aprocessor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller, or other processingdevice), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, anexecutable, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet PC and/ora user equipment (e.g., mobile phone, etc.) with a processing device. Byway of illustration, an application running on a server and the servercan also be a component. One or more components can reside within aprocess, and a component can be localized on one computer and/ordistributed between two or more computers. A set of elements or a set ofother components can be described herein, in which the term “set” can beinterpreted as “one or more.”

Further, these components can execute from various computer readablestorage media having various data structures stored thereon such as witha module, for example. The components can communicate via local and/orremote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or moredata packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with anothercomponent in a local system, distributed system, and/or across anetwork, such as, the Internet, a local area network, a wide areanetwork, or similar network with other systems via the signal).

As another example, a component can be an apparatus with specificfunctionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electric orelectronic circuitry, in which the electric or electronic circuitry canbe operated by a software application or a firmware application executedby one or more processors. The one or more processors can be internal orexternal to the apparatus and can execute at least a part of thesoftware or firmware application. As yet another example, a componentcan be an apparatus that provides specific functionality throughelectronic components without mechanical parts; the electroniccomponents can include one or more processors therein to executesoftware and/or firmware that confer(s), at least in part, thefunctionality of the electronic components.

Use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concretefashion. As used in this application, the term “or” is intended to meanan inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unlessspecified otherwise, or clear from context, “X employs A or B” isintended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, ifX employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then “X employs Aor B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition,the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appendedclaims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unlessspecified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singularform. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “including”, “includes”,“having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used in either thedetailed description and the claims, such terms are intended to beinclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.” Additionally, insituations wherein one or more numbered items are discussed (e.g., a“first X”, a “second X”, etc.), in general the one or more numbereditems may be distinct or they may be the same, although in somesituations the context may indicate that they are distinct or that theyare the same.

As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to, be part of, orinclude an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electroniccircuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory(shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software orfirmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitablehardware components that provide the described functionality. In someembodiments, the circuitry may be implemented in, or functionsassociated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or moresoftware or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitry may includelogic, at least partially operable in hardware.

In consideration of various deficiencies or solutions described herein,various embodiments/aspects are disclosed for network components togenerate and process CRS muting in a physical channel for better signalquality and power efficiency. In particular, for UEs utilizing evenfurther enhanced Machine Type Communication (efeMTC), especially inbandwidth reduced (BR) low-complexity (BL) UEs, additional frequencydomain CRS muting is possible if eNB can assume that the UE does notrely on CRS outside its narrowband (NB) (for Cat-M1) or wideband (WB)(for Cat-M2). In LTE networks, minimizing the inter-cell interferencecan help increase the chances that downlink higher order modulation(64QAM, 256QAM) can be utilized to increase the downlink throughput forusers experiencing good coverage conditions. Time domain CRS muting,where an eNB mutes CRS transmissions that are not needed by any UE, hasbeen shown to improve downlink throughput and reduce connection droprate. For BL UEs, additional frequency domain CRS muting is possible ifeNB can assume that the UE does not rely on CRS outside its narrowband(for Cat-M1) or wideband (for Cat-M2).

In embodiments, an objective of efeMTC related to CRS muting is toutilize capability signaling for support for CRS muting outside BL UENB/WB by enabling BL UEs to indicate CRS capability via a UE capabilityinformation. The BL UE can indicate that it does not rely on CRS outsideits narrowband/wideband+/−X PRBs. The motivation for this proposal is tomute some reference symbols to save network power and reduce inter-cellor inter-RAT (e.g. NR) interference. CRS muting can be applied to BL UEsonly. In current eMTC or feMTC systems, though a UE declares itself as aBL UE, it can still utilize wideband transmission of CRS to improve itschannel estimation and time-frequency tracking if it is actually able toreceive larger bandwidth. Thus, CRS transmission in wider bandwidth ispreferred to improve UE performance. Embodiments herein provide thedesign of the configuration of CRS muting, and the value of parameter Xfor CRS muting in BL UEs for efeMTC.

Additional aspects and details of the disclosure further described belowwith reference to figures.

Embodiments described herein can be implemented into a system using anysuitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 1 illustrates anarchitecture of a system 100 of a network in accordance with someembodiments. The system 100 is shown to include a user equipment (UE)101 and a UE 102, which can be a BL UEs according to 3GPP Release 15 orbeyond, for example with efeMTC. The UEs 101 and 102 are illustrated assmartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devicesconnectable to one or more cellular networks), but can also comprise anymobile or non-mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants(PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets,or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.As discussed herein, the UEs 101 and 102 can be communicatively coupledto networks of network devices 111, 112 (e.g., an HST (HSR) LTE network,a public LTE network (or non-station network), or other network, such asa boarding station network or the like).

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 and 102 can comprise an Internetof Things (loT) UE or MTC devices, which can comprise a network accesslayer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UEconnections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such asmachine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) forexchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobilenetwork (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device(D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTCexchange of data can be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoTnetwork describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which can include uniquelyidentifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internetinfrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs can executebackground applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates,etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UEs 101 and 102 can be configured to connect, e.g., communicativelycouple, with a radio access network (RAN) 110—the RAN 110 can be, forexample, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), orsome other type of RAN. The UEs 101 and 102 utilize connections 103 and104, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communicationsinterface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example,the connections 103 and 104 are illustrated as an air interface toenable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellularcommunications protocols, such as a Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA)network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular(POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation(5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

In this embodiment, the UEs 101 and 102 can further directly exchangecommunication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105can alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising oneor more logical channels, including but not limited to a PhysicalSidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel(PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a PhysicalSidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

The UE 102 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 106via connection 107. The connection 107 can comprise a local wirelessconnection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11protocol, wherein the AP 106 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®)router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown to be connected to theInternet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system(described in further detail below).

The RAN 110 can include one or more access nodes that enable theconnections 103 and 104. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to asbase stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next GenerationNodeBs (gNB), RAN nodes, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations(e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providingcoverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN 110 caninclude one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RANnode 111, and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells orpicocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller usercapacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power(LP) RAN node 112.

Any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 can terminate the air interfaceprotocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 101 and 102.In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 can fulfillvarious logical functions for the RAN 110 including, but not limited to,radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearermanagement, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management anddata packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 101 and 102 can beconfigured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any ofthe RAN nodes 111 and 112 over a multicarrier communication channel inaccordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limitedto, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SingleCarrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communicationtechnique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications),although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 to the UEs 101 and102, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The gridcan be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequencyresource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in eachslot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practicefor OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resourceallocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds toone OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration ofthe resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radioframe. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted asa resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resourceblocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels toresource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection ofresource elements; in the frequency domain, this can represent thesmallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. Thereare several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed usingsuch resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) can carry user data andhigher-layer signaling to the UEs 101 and 102. The physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) can carry information about the transport formatand resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among otherthings. It can also inform the UEs 101 and 102 about the transportformat, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request)information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlinkscheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to theUE 102 within a cell) can be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 and112 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs101 and 102. The downlink resource assignment information can be sent onthe PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 101 and 102.

The PDCCH can use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the controlinformation. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCHcomplex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, whichcan then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching.Each PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, whereeach CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase ShiftKeying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can betransmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of thedownlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There canbe four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with differentnumbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments can use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments can utilize an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for controlinformation transmission. The EPDCCH can be transmitted using one ormore enhanced the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above,each ECCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE can haveother numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN 110 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network(CN) 120—via an S1 interface 113. In embodiments, the CN 120 can be anevolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network,or some other type of CN. In this embodiment the S1 interface 113 issplit into two parts: the S1-U interface 114, which carries traffic databetween the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 122,and the S1-mobility management entity (MME) interface 115, which is asignaling interface between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and MMEs 121.

In this embodiment, the CN 120 comprises the MMEs 121, the S-GW 122, thePacket Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and a home subscriberserver (HSS) 124. The MMEs 121 can be similar in function to the controlplane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) SupportNodes (SGSN). The MMEs 121 can manage mobility aspects in access such asgateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 124 cancomprise a database for network users, including subscription-relatedinformation to support the network entities' handling of communicationsessions. The CN 120 can comprise one or several HSSs 124, depending onthe number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, onthe organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 124 canprovide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization,naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

The S-GW 122 can terminate the S1 interface 113 towards the RAN 110, androutes data packets between the RAN 110 and the CN 120. In addition, theS-GW 122 can be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN nodehandovers and also can provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Otherresponsibilities can include lawful intercept, charging, and some policyenforcement.

The P-GW 123 can terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 123can route data packets between the EPC network 123 and external networkssuch as a network including the application server 130 (alternativelyreferred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP)interface 125. Generally, the application server 130 can be an elementoffering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network(e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). Inthis embodiment, the P-GW 123 is shown to be communicatively coupled toan application server 130 via an IP communications interface 125. Theapplication server 130 can also be configured to support one or morecommunication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP)sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networkingservices, etc.) for the UEs 101 and 102 via the CN 120.

The P-GW 123 can further be a node for policy enforcement and chargingdata collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 126 isthe policy and charging control element of the CN 120. In a non-roamingscenario, there can be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land MobileNetwork (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol ConnectivityAccess Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with localbreakout of traffic, there can be two PCRFs associated with a UE'sIP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF(V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF126 can be communicatively coupled to the application server 130 via theP-GW 123. The application server 130 can signal the PCRF 126 to indicatea new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS)and charging parameters. The PCRF 126 can provision this rule into aPolicy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with theappropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier(QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by theapplication server 130.

FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device 200 in accordance withsome embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 200 can includeapplication circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, Radio Frequency (RF)circuitry 206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 208, one or moreantennas 210, and power management circuitry (PMC) 212 coupled togetherat least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 200 can beincluded in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 200 caninclude less elements (e.g., a RAN node cannot utilize applicationcircuitry 202, and instead include a processor/controller to process IPdata received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 200 caninclude additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage,display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In otherembodiments, the components described below can be included in more thanone device (e.g., said circuitries can be separately included in morethan one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

The application circuitry 202 can include one or more applicationprocessors. For example, the application circuitry 202 can includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core ormulti-core processors. The processor(s) can include any combination ofgeneral-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphicsprocessors, application processors, etc.). The processors can be coupledwith or can include memory/storage and can be configured to executeinstructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applicationsor operating systems to run on the device 200. In some embodiments,processors of application circuitry 202 can process IP data packetsreceived from an EPC.

The baseband circuitry 204 can include circuitry such as, but notlimited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Thebaseband circuitry 204 can include one or more baseband processors orcontrol logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signalpath of the RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for atransmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. Baseband circuitry 204 caninterface with the application circuitry 202 for generation andprocessing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of theRF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the basebandcircuitry 204 can include a third generation (3G) baseband processor204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifthgeneration (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processor(s)204D for other existing generations, generations in development or to bedeveloped in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation(6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more of basebandprocessors 204A-D) can handle various radio control functions thatenable communication with one or more radio networks via the RFcircuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality ofbaseband processors 204A-D can be included in modules stored in thememory 204G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 204E. Theradio control functions can include, but are not limited to, signalmodulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting,etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of thebaseband circuitry 204 can include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT),precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In someembodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204can include convolution, tailbiting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or LowDensity Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodimentsof modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are notlimited to these examples and can include other suitable functionalityin other embodiments.

In addition, the memory 204G (as well as other memory componentsdiscussed herein, such as memory 430, memory 530 or the like) cancomprise one or more machine-readable medium/media includinginstructions that, when performed by a machine or component herein causethe machine to perform acts of the method or of an apparatus or systemfor concurrent communication using multiple communication technologiesaccording to embodiments and examples described herein. It is to beunderstood that aspects described herein can be implemented by hardware,software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented insoftware, functions can be stored on or transmitted over as one or moreinstructions or code on a computer-readable medium (e.g., the memorydescribed herein or other storage device). Computer-readable mediaincludes both computer storage media and communication media includingany medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from oneplace to another. A storage media or a computer readable storage devicecan be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose orspecial purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, suchcomputer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or otheroptical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storagedevices, or other tangible and/or non-transitory medium, that can beused to carry or store desired information or executable instructions.Also, any connection can also be termed a computer-readable medium. Forexample, if software is transmitted from a website, server, or otherremote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair,digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such asinfrared, radio, and microwave, then coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, andmicrowave are included in the definition of medium.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can include one or moreaudio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F canbe include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellationand can include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.Components of the baseband circuitry can be suitably combined in asingle chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board insome embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituentcomponents of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry202 can be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on achip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can supportcommunication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network(EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN).Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured to supportradio communications of more than one wireless protocol can be referredto as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 206 can enable communication with wireless networks usingmodulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 can include switches, filters,amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wirelessnetwork. RF circuitry 206 can include a receive signal path which caninclude circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEMcircuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry204. RF circuitry 206 can also include a transmit signal path which caninclude circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by thebaseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals to the FEMcircuitry 208 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 caninclude mixer circuitry 206 a, amplifier circuitry 206 b and filtercircuitry 206 c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RFcircuitry 206 can include filter circuitry 206 c and mixer circuitry 206a. RF circuitry 206 can also include synthesizer circuitry 206 d forsynthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206 a of thereceive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments,the mixer circuitry 206 a of the receive signal path can be configuredto down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 based onthe synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 206 d. Theamplifier circuitry 206 b can be configured to amplify thedown-converted signals and the filter circuitry 206 c can be a low-passfilter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwantedsignals from the down-converted signals to generate output basebandsignals. Output baseband signals can be provided to the basebandcircuitry 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the outputbaseband signals can be zero-frequency baseband signals, although thisis not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 206 a of thereceive signal path can comprise passive mixers, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206 a of the transmit signalpath can be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on thesynthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 206 d togenerate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 208. The basebandsignals can be provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and can befiltered by filter circuitry 206 c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206 a of the receive signalpath and the mixer circuitry 206 a of the transmit signal path caninclude two or more mixers and can be arranged for quadraturedownconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, themixer circuitry 206 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry206 a of the transmit signal path can include two or more mixers and canbe arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In someembodiments, the mixer circuitry 206 a of the receive signal path andthe mixer circuitry 206 a can be arranged for direct downconversion anddirect upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixercircuitry 206 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206 aof the transmit signal path can be configured for super-heterodyneoperation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals can be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalscan be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 206 can include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry204 can include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 206.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry can beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206 d can be afractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other typesof frequency synthesizers can be suitable. For example, synthesizercircuitry 206 d can be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequencymultiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with afrequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 206 d can be configured to synthesize anoutput frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206 a of the RFcircuitry 206 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. Insome embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206 d can be a fractionalN/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input can be provided by a voltagecontrolled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Dividercontrol input can be provided by either the baseband circuitry 204 orthe application circuitry 202 depending on the desired output frequency.In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) can be determinedfrom a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applicationcircuitry 202.

Synthesizer circuitry 206 d of the RF circuitry 206 can include adivider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phaseaccumulator. In some embodiments, the divider can be a dual modulusdivider (DMD) and the phase accumulator can be a digital phaseaccumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD can be configured todivide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out)to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, theDLL can include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phasedetector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments,the delay elements can be configured to break a VCO period up into Ndequal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in thedelay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to helpensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 206 d can be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in otherembodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrierfrequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrierfrequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and dividercircuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency withmultiple different phases with respect to each other. In someembodiments, the output frequency can be a LO frequency (fLO). In someembodiments, the RF circuitry 206 can include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 208 can include a receive signal path which can includecircuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or moreantennas 210, amplify the received signals and provide the amplifiedversions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 206 for furtherprocessing. FEM circuitry 208 can also include a transmit signal pathwhich can include circuitry configured to amplify signals fortransmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one ormore of the one or more antennas 210. In various embodiments, theamplification through the transmit or receive signal paths can be donesolely in the RF circuitry 206, solely in the FEM circuitry 208, or inboth the RF circuitry 206 and the FEM circuitry 208.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 208 can include a TX/RX switch toswitch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry can include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path.The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry can include an LNA toamplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RFsignals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 206). The transmitsignal path of the FEM circuitry 208 can include a power amplifier (PA)to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 206), andone or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission(e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 210).

In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can manage power provided to thebaseband circuitry 204. In particular, the PMC 212 can controlpower-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DCconversion. The PMC 212 can often be included when the device 200 iscapable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device isincluded in a UE. The PMC 212 can increase the power conversionefficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heatdissipation characteristics.

While FIG. 2 shows the PMC 212 coupled only with the baseband circuitry204. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 212 can be additionally oralternatively coupled with, and perform similar power managementoperations for, other components such as, but not limited to,application circuitry 202, RF circuitry 206, or FEM circuitry 208.

In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can control, or otherwise be part of,various power saving mechanisms of the device 200. For example, if thedevice 200 is in an RRC_Connected (RRC_CONNECTED) state (e.g., as anRRC_CONNECTED UE), where it is still connected to the RAN node as itexpects to receive traffic shortly, then it can enter a state known asDiscontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. Duringthis state, the device 200 can power down for brief intervals of timeand thus save power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time,then the device 200 can transition off to an RRC_IDLE state (e.g., as anRRC_IDLE UE), where it disconnects from the network and does not performoperations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device200 goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where againit periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers downagain. The device 200 cannot receive data in this state, in order toreceive data, it must transition back to RRC_Connected state.

An additional power saving mode can allow a device to be unavailable tothe network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging fromseconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totallyunreachable to the network and can power down completely. Any data sentduring this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay isacceptable.

Processors of the application circuitry 202 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 204 can be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 204, alone or in combination, can be used execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 202 can utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from theselayers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmissioncommunication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers).As referred to herein, Layer 3 can comprise a radio resource control(RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein,Layer 2 can comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio linkcontrol (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1can comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node.

FIG. 3 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the basebandcircuitry 204 of FIG. 2 can comprise processors 204A-204E and a memory204G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 204A-204E caninclude a memory interface, 304A-304E, respectively, to send/receivedata to/from the memory 204G.

The baseband circuitry 204 can further include one or more interfaces tocommunicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memoryinterface 312 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memoryexternal to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitryinterface 314 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from theapplication circuitry 202 of FIG. 2), an RF circuitry interface 316(e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 206 ofFIG. 2), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 318 (e.g., aninterface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC)components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi®components, and other communication components), and a power managementinterface 320 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or controlsignals to/from the PMC 212).

Referring to FIG. 4, illustrated is a block diagram of a system 400employable at a UE or other network device (e.g., MTC, efeMTC, IoTdevice) that facilitates/enables CRS muting for BL UEs for efeMTCaccording to various aspects described herein. System 400 can includeone or more processors 410 (e.g., one or more baseband processors suchas one or more of the baseband processors discussed in connection withFIG. 2 and/or FIG. 3) comprising processing circuitry and associatedinterface(s) (e.g., one or more interface(s) discussed in connectionwith FIG. 3), transceiver circuitry 420 (e.g., comprising part or all ofRF circuitry 206, which can comprise transmitter circuitry (e.g.,associated with one or more transmit chains) and/or receiver circuitry(e.g., associated with one or more receive chains) that can employcommon circuit elements, distinct circuit elements, or a combinationthereof), and a memory 430 (which can comprise any of a variety ofstorage mediums and can store instructions and/or data associated withone or more of processor(s) 410 or transceiver circuitry 420). Invarious aspects, system 400 can be included within a user equipment(UE).

In various aspects discussed herein, signals and/or messages can begenerated and output for transmission, and/or transmitted messages canbe received and processed. Depending on the type of signal or messagegenerated, outputting for transmission (e.g., by processor(s) 410,processor(s) 510, etc.) can comprise one or more of the following:generating a set of associated bits that indicate the content of thesignal or message, coding (e.g., which can include adding a cyclicredundancy check (CRC) and/or coding via one or more of turbo code, lowdensity parity-check (LDPC) code, tailbiting convolution code (TBCC),etc.), scrambling (e.g., based on a scrambling seed), modulating (e.g.,via one of binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shiftkeying (QPSK), or some form of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM),etc.), and/or resource mapping (e.g., to a scheduled set of resources,to a set of time and frequency resources granted for uplinktransmission, etc.). Depending on the type of received signal ormessage, processing (e.g., by processor(s) 410, processor(s) 510, etc.)can comprise one or more of: identifying physical resources associatedwith the signal/message, detecting the signal/message, resource elementgroup deinterleaving, demodulation, descrambling, and/or decoding.

Referring to FIG. 5, illustrated is a block diagram of a system 500employable at a Base Station (BS), eNB, gNB or other network device thatcan enable CRS muting to increase channel quality and powercommunication efficiency. System 500 can include one or more processors510 (e.g., one or more baseband processors such as one or more of thebaseband processors discussed in connection with FIG. 2 and/or FIG. 3)comprising processing circuitry and associated interface(s) (e.g., oneor more interface(s) discussed in connection with FIG. 3), communicationcircuitry 520 (e.g., which can comprise circuitry for one or more wired(e.g., X2, etc.) connections and/or part or all of RF circuitry 206,which can comprise one or more of transmitter circuitry (e.g.,associated with one or more transmit chains) or receiver circuitry(e.g., associated with one or more receive chains), wherein thetransmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry can employ common circuitelements, distinct circuit elements, or a combination thereof), andmemory 530 (which can comprise any of a variety of storage mediums andcan store instructions and/or data associated with one or more ofprocessor(s) 510 or communication circuitry 520). In various aspects,system 500 can be included within an Evolved Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (Evolved Node B, eNodeB, or eNB), nextgeneration Node B (gNodeB or gNB) or other base station or TRP(Transmit/Receive Point) in a wireless communications network. In someaspects, the processor(s) 510, communication circuitry 520, and thememory 530 can be included in a single device, while in other aspects,they can be included in different devices, such as part of a distributedarchitecture. As described in greater detail below, system 500 canenable the configuration of UE(s) for CRS muting.

In various embodiments, CRS muting can be processed via one or moreprocessors 410 and transmissions generated based on the CRS mutingreceived via transceiver circuitry 420. The UE 400 can be configured togenerate UE capability information with the UEs capability for thesupport of CRS muting. This capability, for example, can be generatedvia the processor(s) 410 and transmitted to a cell network or eNB/gNB(e.g., system 500 of FIG. 5) in a UE capability information element(e.g., a ueCapability information, or the like).

The processor(s) 410 of the UE 400 can be configured to process CRS asmuted outside its narrowband (NB)/wideband (WB), with plug/minus an Xnumber of physical resource blocks (PRBs). An NB can be defined, forexample, similarly as in Release 13 (e.g., TS 36.213 or other 3GPP TS)for enhanced machine type communication (eMTC). The NB can benon-overlapped or non-overlapping with one another while occupyingdifferent numbers of NBs for different system BW. For example, there canbe about 1 NB for a system BW of about 1.4 MHz, about four NBs total forbandwidth of about 5 MHz, 8 NBs for system BW of 15 MHz, and 16 NBs forsystem BW of about 20 MHz, for example. The WB can comprisenon-overlapping or overlapping bandwidths in terms of NBs comprising theWB, and each WB can consist of 4 NBs.

The processor(s) 410 of the UE 400 can process CRS mutingsemi-statically via a higher layer signaling based on one or more CRSmuting configuration parameters. The CRS muting configuration parameterscan be cell-specific at least in part or entirely, as well asUE-specific at least in part or entirely. For example, cell-specific CRSmuting configuration parameters can be received and processed via themaster information block (MIB)/system information block (SIB) of aphysical layer channel (e.g., the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) forMIB and PDSCH for SIB), while any UE-specific cell configuration mutingparameters via a UE-dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling.The CRS muting configuration parameters can include a set of subframeswhere the CRS is muted (or un-muted), as well as a set of PRBs/NBs/WBswhere the CRS is muted (or un-muted).

In one example, the processor(s) 410 of the UE 400 can process anindication from the eNB or associated cell that comprises a bitmap ordirectly via a resource index (e.g., subframe/PRB/NB/WB/index(es)) inorder to derive the CRS muting configuration parameters for CRS mutingprocessing.

In another aspect, CRS muting can be enabled/disabled via data controlinformation (DCI). In this way, a mechanism similar to thesemi-persistent scheduling mechanisms can be used toactivated/deactivate CRS muting via the DCI, which can be in addition toRRC signaling of the CRS muting configuration parameters for indicationof the CRS muting configuration. The CRS muting configuration parametersor activation/deactivation thereof.

In an example, the DCI format can be reused from the DCI format 6-0A orDCI format 6-1A. In particular, one or more special fields can be usedfor activation/deactivation that can follow Table 9.2-1 B and 9.2-1C inTS 36.213, respectively, in which an additional or further Radio NetworkTemporary Identifier (RNTI) can be utilized.

Alternatively, or additionally, in another example the DCI format 0 canbe reused, in which a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) cell RNTI(SPS-C-RNTI) used to designate the CRS muting configuration parameters,or activation/deactivation. Validation fields of the DCI format 0 canset based on Table 9.2-1 and 9.2-1A in TS 36.213 for activation andrelease, respectively.

The Tables discussed above are reproduced below for ease of reference.

TABLE 9.2-1 Special fields for Semi-Persistent Scheduling ActivationPDCCH/EPDCCH Validation DCI format DCI format DCI format 0 1/1A2/2A/2B/2C/2D TPC command for set to ‘00’ N/A N/A scheduled PUSCH Cyclicshift set to ‘000’ N/A N/A DM RS Modulation and MSB is set N/A N/Acoding scheme to ‘0’ and redundancy version HARQ process N/A FDD: set toFDD: set to ‘000’ number ‘000’ TDD: set to ‘0000’ TDD: set to ‘0000’Modulation and N/A MSB is set For the enabled coding scheme to ‘0’transport block: MSB is set to ‘0’ Redundancy N/A set to ‘00’ For theenabled version transport block: set to ‘00’

TABLE 9.2-1A Special fields for Semi-Persistent Scheduling ReleasePDCCH/EPDCCH Validation DCI format DCI format 0 1A TPC command for setto ‘00’ N/A scheduled PUSCH Cyclic shift set to ‘000’ N/A DM RSModulation and set to ‘11111’ N/A coding scheme and redundancy versionResource block Set to all ‘1’s N/A assignment and hopping resourceallocation HARQ process N/A FDD: set to ‘000’ number TDD: set to ‘0000’Modulation and N/A set to ‘11111’ coding scheme Redundancy version N/Aset to ‘00’ Resource block N/A Set to all ‘1’s assignment

TABLE 9.2-1B Special fields for Semi-Persistent Scheduling ActivationMPDCCH Validation DCI format DCI format 6-0A 6-1A HARQ process set to‘000’ FDD: set to ‘000’ number TDD: set to ‘0000 Redundancy version setto ‘00’ set to ‘00’ TPC command for set to ‘00’ N/A scheduled PUSCH TPCcommand for N/A set to ‘00’ scheduled PUCCH

TABLE 9.2-1C Special fields for Semi-Persistent Scheduling ReleaseMPDCCH Validation DCI format DCI format 6-0A 6-1A HARQ process set to‘000’ FDD: set to ‘000’ number TDD: set to ‘0000 Redundancy version setto ‘00’ set to ‘00’ Repetition number set to ‘00’ set to ‘00’ Modulationand set to ‘1111’ set to ‘1111’ coding scheme TPC command for set to‘00’ N/A scheduled PUSCH Resource block Set to all ‘1’s Set to all ‘1’sassignment

The CRS muting configuration parameters can include subframes with CRSor CRS resources/symbols that is muted. A periodicity can be includedthat further indicates the set of subframes with CRS muting, in whichthe set of subframes that are muted can be within each period of theperiodicity. In one example, a set of CRS muting subframes within theperiod can be indicated in terms of a number of subframes, or via abitmap with an i^(th) bit indicating if the CRS is muted in an i^(th)subframe within the period.

Further, the DCI being processed by processor(s) 410 of the UE 400 caninclude a part of the CRS muting configuration or CRS mutingconfiguration parameters while RRC can signal other CRS mutingconfiguration parameters. For example, a set of frequency domainresources where the CRS is muted can be signaled in activation DCI andthe set of subframes where CRS is muted may be signaled by RRC. Forexample, bits other than the validation bits, or bits in fields used forvalidation of data in DCI can be used for an indication of CRSconfiguration or related parameters. Alternatively, or additionally, aless number of validation bits can be used for validation and remainingbits in the total number of bits can be used for the indication of theCRS configuration or related parameters, for example.

In other aspects, CRS muting also can take into account or be dependenton non-BL UEs, frequency hopping of MPDCCH/PDSCH transmissions, and BLUEs in both RRC_IDLE mode and RRC_CONNECTED mode, respectively. In asmuch, the processor(s) 410 of the UE 400 processing data from thetransceiver circuitry 420 can determine that a portion of PRBs/NBs/WBswithin a range outside of a central core set of PRBs/NBs/WBs are not CRSmuted.

For example, the processor(s) 410 can process the subframes received ina physical channel with CRS muting based on a central six PRBs withplus/minus Y PRBs not being muted, in which Y can be from one side oreach side of the PRBs/NBs/WBs (e.g., two times Y), where Y can be anon-negative integer. In an aspect, the processor(s) 410 can take intoaccount during processing that the physical channel that CRS is notmuted when the subframes and corresponding PRBs carry system informationfor the bandwidth reduced UE (e.g., in system information block 1bandwidth reduced (SIB1-BR)).

Regarding frequency domain resources in particular, the CRS could not bemuted for the whole system BW, or the central 6 PRBs plus/minus Y PRBsand the NBs for SIB transmission plus/minus Y PRBs. In particular, theSIB1-BR and other SIBs can be sent on NBs other than the central 6 PRBs.

As referenced herein, plus/minus can refer to before, after, during orany combination thereof with respect to the variable or parameter thatit modifies. For example, plus/minus Y PRBs can be PRBs before thecentral six PRBs, after the central six PRBs, during the central sixPRBs, or any combination thereof.

In one example, Y can be any integer number or non-negative integernumber, including, for example, Y=0, 3, or 6. When Y is a large number,this can imply that CRS is not muted via the whole system bandwidth. Inparticular, Y can be predefined, or be configured via RRC signaling tothe UE 400 to process CRS accordingly.

In other related aspects, Y can depend on a maximum bandwidth (BW)supported by the UE in the cell, which the processor(s) 410 cangenerate/indicate in the UE capability information, for example. Forexample, if the UE 400 supports a maximum BW of 5 MHz, then 6 PRBs plus2(Y) or two times Y PRBs could be larger than the 5 MHz. The 6 PRBsplus/minus (+/−) Y can be interpreted as 6 PRBs plug Y PRBs at each sideof the 6 PRBs, as an example.

In other aspects, a set of subframes that the CRS is never muted can bethe subframes containing the MIB/SIB-BR, every valid DL subframe, or Nsubframes before, after, during or a combination of the MIB/SIB-BR, aswell as (or plus) the subframes carrying the MIB/SIB-BR. N can also beany non-negative integer, which can be predefined or received viasignaling that is processed by the processor(s) 410, for example. In anexample, the processor(s) 410 can derive from communication from the eNB500 which time resources or frequency resources that the CRS is going tobe muted, via MIB/SIB, or a UE-dedicated RRC signaling in theconfiguration or CRS muting configuration parameters, of the CRS muting.

In other embodiments, CRS muting could not be supported for a system BWof no more than Z, where Z can be 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, or 5 MHz. For example,CRS muting could be supported only for the system BW larger than Z MHz,where Z can be 5 MHz.

Other embodiments of the UE 400 can take into account whether the UE isin an RRC connected mode, as an RRC_CONNECTED UE, or in an RRC idlemode, as an RRC_IDLE UE.

For example, if the UE 400 is in an RRC_IDLE mode and camped on a cellof an eNB then the processor(s) 400 could not be configured to processthe CRS muting. Alternatively, the UE 400 could support CRS muting inRRC_IDLE modes.

For an RRC_CONNECTED UE, various embodiments can be implementeddepending on the subframes being processed by the UE 400.

For subframes where the UE monitors Enhanced Machine-Type Communication(eMTC) Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH) without reception ofPDSCH, the CRS can be muted outside of the NB for the MPDCCH monitoringplus/minus X PRBs, if the max PDSCH BW is configured to be 1.4 MHz.Alternatively, or additionally, if the maximum PDSCH BW if configured tobe 5 MHz, the frequency resources outside of which WB covering MPDCCHmonitoring resources plus/minus X PRBs can be muted, where the WB can bedefined as the WB starting from or ending at the NB for MPDCCHmonitoring (i.e., as overlapping WB) or the non-overlapping WB thatincludes the NB for MPDCCH monitoring. The maximum PDSCH bandwidth canalso be processed as part of the UE capability information for the eNBto determine CRS muting configurations for the UE 400.

For subframes where the UE 400 receives the PDSCH, and the scheduledPDSCH transmission as well as the monitored MPDCCH NB fall within themaximum PDSCH BW, other CRS muting configurations or CRS mutingconfiguration parameters of the CRS muting can be considered. Forexample, if there is only one NB or one WB that can cover both PDSCH andthe MPDCCH region, the CRS can be muted outside of this NB/WB,plus/minus X PRBs. In another example, if the UE 400 is configured tohave a maximum PDSCH BW of 5 MHz, and there are multiple WBs (in casesoverlapped WB is defined) that can cover the MPDCCH and PDSCH region,the reference WB can be defined as the WB with the lowest index, the WBwith the highest index, or the WB that starts from MPDCCH or scheduledPDSCH NB. The CRS outside the reference WB+/−X PRBs can be muteddepending on the CRS muting configuration or the CRS muting parameters,including X as a non-negative integer.

For subframes where the UE 400 receives the PDSCH, and where thescheduled PDSCH transmission as well as the monitored MPDCCH NB do notfall within the max PDSCH BW other CRS muting configurations or CRSmuting configuration parameters of the CRS muting can also beconsidered. For example, if the UE 400 is configured to have a maximumPDSCH BW of 1.4 MHz, the NB where the scheduled PDSCH transmission fallsin can be the reference NB; The CRS can then be muted outside thereference NB plus/minus X PRBs, depending on CRS muting configuration orparameters (e.g., X). If UE is configured to have a maximum PDSCH BW of5 MHz, the reference WB can be defined as the WB starting from thelowest NB allocated for PDSCH transmission, or the WB ending at thehighest NB allocated for PDSCH, where the WB here is the overlapped WBin the system; The CRS can then be muted outside the reference WB+/−XPRBs, depending on CRS muting configuration.

In the time domain for one or more RRC_CONNECTED UEs, or for time domainresources related to CRS muting configuration parameters, various otheraspects can be applied to the CRS muting configurations, relatedparameters in processing via the processor(s) 410 of the UE 400. In oneexample, CRS could not be muted in certain frequency region (dependingon the options above for frequency domain muting configurations orpatterns) in every valid DL subframe. In another example, CRS could notbe muted in a certain frequency region (depending on the options abovefor frequency domain muting pattern) during at least one of: the validsubframes used to actually transmit MPDCCH, the subframes correspondingto an MPDCCH search space, or the subframes scheduled for PDSCHtransmission.

Alternatively, or additionally, in the time domain for one or moreRRC_CONNECTED UEs, the CRS is not muted in a certain frequency region(depending on the options above for frequency domain mutingconfigurations or patterns related to monitoring the MPDCCH without orwith reception of the PDSCH) N subframes after, before, during or acombination of the subframes that can carry MPDCCH (i.e., the subframescorresponding to an MPDCCH search space), or which are scheduled forPDSCH transmission. N can be any non-negative integer, which can bepredefined or signaled by a higher layer signaling. This can be tofurther enable cross-subframe channel estimation for demodulation ofMPDCCH/PDSCH.

In other embodiments, for RRC_IDLE UEs, when the UE 400 is in anRRC_IDLE UE camped on the cell of the eNB 500, for example, otheraspects can be considered in processing CRS muting for the enhancementof power/signal quality or the like.

In an aspect, RRC_IDLE UEs 400 could not support CRS muting, forexample. In this case, eNB needs to ensure there are no RRC_IDLE UEswhen it mutes CRS.

In another aspect, the UE 400 as an RRC_IDLE UE can support CRS muting.Certain default NB/WB can be predefined/configured by signaling, whereCRS can be muted outside the default NB/WB, plus/minus X PRBs. Here,some default NB(s)/WB(s) can be cell-specific, while some NB(s)/WB(s)can be UE-specific.

In another aspect, where the UE 400 (e.g., as a BL UE) supports amaximum channel BW of 5 MHz and is camping in the cell, the CRS couldonly be muted outside of a wideband (spanning 5 MHz, or about 24 or 25PRBs), plus/minus X PRBs.

The default time/frequency resources where CRS is not muted can becell-specific, where, for example, the NB/WB can include the central 6PRBs, or central 6-PRB, plus/minus Y PRBs, as discussed above as well.Alternatively, or additionally, the default NB/WB can be UE-specific.The possible CRS muting frequency region for the UE 400 as an RRC_IDLEUE can depend on the NB where the UE monitors paging as provided in theexamples below.

In the frequency domain, in particular, various examples can be utilizedbased on the UE 400 monitoring the paging or paging channel data. In oneexample, the processor(s) 410 can process the CRS as muted outside theNB for paging monitoring plus/minus X PRBs. In another example, if theUE 400 is configured with 5 MHz before it enters idle mode, the CRS canbe muted outside the reference WB, plus/minus, X PRBs, where thereference WB can be the WB starting from or ending at the particular NBfor paging monitoring (i.e., as an overlapped WB), or as anon-overlapped WB which would then include the NB for paging monitoring.

In the time domain, in particular, various examples can be utilizedbased on the UE 400 monitoring the paging or paging channel data also.In one example, the CRS can be processed by the UE 400 (or generated bythe eNB 500) as not being muted in a certain frequency region (dependingon the options above for frequency domain muting pattern) in every validDL subframe.

Alternatively, or additionally, the CRS could not be muted in a certainfrequency region (depending on the options above for frequency domainmuting pattern) N subframes before, after, during the paging occasion,as well as subsequent subframes used to carry the paging DCI (in MPDCCH)and the subframes used to carry the paging record (in PDSCH). N can beany non-negative integer, which can be predefined or signaled by higherlayer.

In aspects/embodiments herein, the CRS muting outside of PRBs/NBs/WBs,plus/minus X PRBs can be interpreted as CRS is not muted in thePRBs/NBs/WBs and additional X PRBs at the two sides of the PRBs/NBs/WBs,i.e. the considered resources (PRB(s)/NB(s)/WB(s)) in addition to2(X)/2×(X) PRBs in total, for example. In an aspect, when the consideredPRB(s)/NB(s)/WB(s) are at the system band edge, all the above examplescan be extended to CRS muting outside the considered PRB(s)/NB(s)/WB(s)in addition to X PRBs at the side within the system bandwidth, or can beextended to CRS muting outside the considered PRB(s)/NB(s)/WB(s)) inaddition to 2(X) PRBs at the side within the system bandwidth, forexample.

In other additional embodiments, the design of the one or more CRSmuting configurations or the CRS muting configuration parameters X (orany of the other non-negative integers as discussed herein, such as N,Y, Z or the like) can be implemented (generated by the eNB 500 orprocessed by the UE 400) according to various aspects of examples below.

For example, X as a non-negative integer can be predefined. As such, Xcan be predefined regardless of a maximum uplink (UL) or downlink (DL)channel BW that is supported by the UE. In one example, X can be 0, 3,6, 9 or 12 PRBs, but is not limited to any specific non-negativeinteger.

In another example, the CRS muting configuration parameter X can beindicated by eNB 500. In one embodiment, the RRC signaling forconfiguration of CRS muting can include the value of X. In anotherembodiment, the DCI activating the CRS muting can indicate the value ofX. Alternatively, or additionally, system information can include thevalue of X. A set of predefined X values can be defined, and thesignaling only indicates the index of the value within the predefinedset. For example, for set {0, 3, 6, 12}, 2 bits are needed for theindication. Alternatively, the absolute value of X can be indicated. Forexample, for system BW of 20 MHz and a BL UE with max 1 NB channel BW, 7bits may be used for indication, e.g. from set {0, 1, . . . , 94}.

Alternatively, or additionally, in other aspects, X (or other parameterherein) can be defined as a function of a maximum PDSCH channel BW, ormaximum physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) channel BW, or both. Inan aspect, X can be defined as a function of the maximum of the maxPDSCH channel BW across all UEs in the cell 500, for example. In anotheraspect, X can be a function of only a maximum PDSCH channel BW of the UEindicating its capability in the UE capability information for supportof the CRS muting. For example, the function can be X=ceil (A*NDL) orfloor(A*NDL), where NDL is the max PDSCH channel BW supported by the UE400, for example, and A can be a real number (e.g., A=0, 1, 0.5, 2, orother real number). In another embodiment, X can be a function of only amaximum PUSCH channel BW of the UE 400 indicating its capability in theUE capability information for support of CRS muting. For example, thefunction can be X=A*NUL, where NUL is the maximum PUSCH channel BWsupported by the UE 400, and A is a real number (e.g., A=0, 1, 0.5, 2,or other real number). Alternatively, or additionally, X can be afunction of both a maximum PDSCH and PUSCH channel BW of the UE 400indicating its capability in a UE capability information for support ofCRS muting. For example, the function can be X=A*max {NDL, Nus}, whereNDL and NUL are the maximum PDSCH channel BW and maximum PUSCH channelBW supported by the UE 400, respectively, and A is a real number (e.g.,A=0, 1, 0.5, 2, or other real number).

Alternatively, or additionally, in other aspects, X can be a function ofa number of PRBs where the UE 400 monitors MPDCCH that can be based onthe MPDCCH PRB-set configuration in MPDCCH common search space (CSS) (=6PRBs) or MPDCCH UE search space (USS), or be a function of a number ofPRBs allocated for PDSCH/PUSCH. Similar to aspects above, the functioncan be X=A*N as one example, where N can be a number of PRBs where theUE 400 monitors MPDCCH, or the number of PRBs allocated for PDSCH/PUSCHtransmission, or the number of PRBs spanning the frequency domain regionthat covers the PRBs for MPDCCH monitoring and PDSCH reception. A can bea real number (e.g., A=0, 1, 0.5, 2, or other real number). Theparameter A as proposed here and above herein can be predefined, orindicated by the eNB 500, for example via/by RRC signaling or DCIenables the CRS muting.

In a first set of summary examples to the various aspects/embodimentsherein, the below examples are envisioned as herein below, as alsodescribed above.

Example 1 may include the system and method of supporting CRS muting incertain frequency resource in efeMTC.

Example 2 may include the method of example I or some other exampleherein, wherein CRS muting may be configured via RRC signaling orRRC+SPS like mechanism, depending on UE capability.

Example 3 may include the method of example I or some other exampleherein, wherein CRS is not muted in central 6 PRBs+/−Y PRBs for certainor all SFs, and CRS muting may depend on PSS/SSS/MIB/SIB transmission.

Example 4 may include the method of example I or some other exampleherein, wherein CRS may be muted outside NB/WB+/−X PRBs for a RRCCONNECTED UE, where NB/WB depends on NB for MPDCCH monitoring andscheduled PD SCH resources.

Example 5 may include the method of example I or some other exampleherein, wherein CRS may not be muted for RRC_IDLE UEs, or may be mutedoutside a predefined/configured NB/WB+/−X PRBs.

Example 6 may include the method of example I or some other exampleherein, wherein CRS is not muted in certain frequency region in everyvalid DL subframe, or N subframes before and during subframes which maycarry MPDCCH or scheduled for PDSCH transmission.

Example 7 may include the method of example I or some other exampleherein, wherein X may be predefined, or configured, or be a function ofmax PDSCH and/or PUSCH channel BW, or be a function of number of PRBsfor MPDCCH monitoring or PDSCH reception.

Example 8 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method described in or related to any of examples1-7, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 9 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediacomprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution ofthe instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, toperform one or more elements of a method described in or related to anyof examples 1-7, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 10 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-7, or any other method or process describedherein.

Example 11 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-7, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 12 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-7, or portions thereof.

Example 13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless networkas shown and described herein.

Example 14 may include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example 15 may include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

While the methods described within this disclosure are illustrated inand described herein as a series of acts or events, it will beappreciated that the illustrated ordering of such acts or events are notto be interpreted in a limiting sense. For example, some acts can occurin different orders and/or concurrently with other acts or events apartfrom those illustrated and/or described herein. In addition, not allillustrated acts can be required to implement one or more aspects orembodiments of the description herein. Further, one or more of the actsdepicted herein can be carried out in one or more separate acts and/orphases.

Referring to FIG. 6, illustrated is a flow diagram of an example method600 employable at a UE (e.g., 400). The example method 600 can initiateat 602 with processing circuitry configured to: generate a UE capabilityinformation that indicates a support for cell reference signal (CRS)muting. Support can be a level of support such as BW capability, or anyof the CRS muting configuration parameters associated with the UEssignal processing and communication signaling.

At 604, the method further includes processing data of a physicalchannel with CRS muting based on the UE capability information, whereinthe CRS muting is outside of a narrow band (NB) or a wide band (WB)plus/minus X physical resource blocks (PRBs), wherein X is anon-negative integer.

At 606, the method further includes transmitting or processing databased on the CRS muting.

In other embodiments, the method can include processing one or more CRSmuting configuration parameters via at least one of: a masterinformation block (MIB), a system information block (SIB), or aUE-dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, wherein the one ormore CRS muting configuration parameters include one or more of:cell-specific parameters or UE-specific parameters, comprising a set ofCRS muted subframes, a set of PRBs, NBs, or WBs where CRS is muted. Thiscan include processing one or more indications of the one or more CRSmuting configuration parameters, wherein the one or more indicationscomprise a bitmap, a resource index, or a periodicity with a set ofsubframes with the CRS muting in a period of the periodicity. The one ormore CRS muting configuration parameters can be process in one or moreof: data control information (DCI) or the RRC signaling. Theseparameters can also include any parameters related to or identified inthe Tables 9.2-1 thru 9.2.1C herein such as also cited in TS 36.213, forexample.

In an example, an indication of the CRS muting can be processed that isonly outside of a central six physical resource blocks (PRBs) plus/minusY PRBs, wherein Y comprises a non-negative integer as the indication ofthe CRS muting that is only outside of the central six PRBs based on amaximum bandwidth supported in the UE capability information andrelative to each side of the central six PRBs.

The processing circuitry can be further configured to process the CRSmuting to be not muted for N subframes of at least one of: before, afteror during monitored subframes of Enhanced Machine-Type Communication(eMTC) Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH) subframes that isoutside of the NB for MPDCCH monitoring plus/minus the X PRBs, oroutside of the NB for the monitored MPDCCH plus/minus the X PRBs inresponse to a maximum bandwidth (BW) of a Physical Downlink SharedChannel (PDSCH) being about 1.4 MHz, and outside of the WB plus/minusthe X PRBs in response to the maximum BW of the PDSCH being about 5 MHzwhere the WB includes or does not include the NB. The above acts canalso apply to PDSCH that comprises unicast PDSCH or PDSCH carrying oneor more SIBs also, for example.

In response to receiving the PDSCH, wherein the PDSCH received and theMPDCCH are outside of the maximum BW of the PDSCH, if the maximum PDSCHBW is about 1.4 MHz, the NB comprises a reference NB located at thePDSCH transmission, and if the maximum PDSCH BW is about 5 MHz, the WBcomprises a reference WB starting from a lowest NB allocated for thePDSCH or ending at a highest NB allocated for the PDSCH, wherein the WBcomprises an overlapping WB or the WB covering the PDSCH scheduledfrequency resources if WB is defined in a non-overlapped way.

The CRS muting can be kept from being generated within a frequencyregion of N subframes of at least one of: before, after or during MPDCCHsubframes or scheduled PDSCH subframes, based on one or more criteria,wherein the one or more criteria comprise at least one of: each validdownlink subframe, or subframes related to MPDCCH transmission, anMPDCCH search space, or a PDSCH transmission, wherein N comprises anon-negative integer.

Referring to FIG. 7, illustrated is a flow diagram of an example method700 employable at a gNB/eNB. The example method 700 can initiate at 702with processing a UE capability information that indicates a support forthe CRS muting. The support can include one or more capabilityparameters for a BL UE, including BW, frequency, NB configuration, WBconfiguration, a set of subframes where the CRS is muted (or un-muted),as well as a set of PRBs/NBs/WBs where the CRS is muted (or un-muted),or any other parameters discussed or referenced to herein.

At 704, the example method 700 further comprises generating a CRS mutingin a physical channel to a BL UE. The CRS muting is generated outside ofa narrow band (NB) or a wide band (WB) plus/minus X physical resourceblocks (PRBs), wherein X is a non-negative integer, based on a CRSmuting capability.

At 706, the eNB/gNB (e.g., 500) can generate the CRS muting based on theUE capability information by providing the CRS muting configurationparameters via at least one of: a master information block (MIB), asystem information block (SIB), or a radio resource control (RRC)signaling (e.g., a UE dedicated RRC signaling), which can include one ormore of: cell-specific parameters or UE-specific parameters.

At 708, the CRS muting can be enabled, disabled, or both sequentially,via a DCI in response to at least a part of the CRS muting configurationparameters being provided via the UE-dedicated RRC signaling.

In other embodiments, the one or more of the CRS muting configurationparameters or CRS muting resources can be activated/deactivated via datacontrol information (DCI) via/with a radio network temporary identified(RNTI) for the CRS muting or by reusing a semi persistent schedulingcell RNTI (SPS-C RNTI) with a DCI format 0 used foractivation/deactivation of the CRS muting.

The eNB/gNB (e.g., 500) can further determine the cell reference signal(CRS) muting capability based on a user equipment (UE) capabilityinformation. The CRS muting can be generated, for example, as onlyoutside of a central six physical resource blocks (PRBs) plus/minus YPRBs, wherein Y comprises a non-negative integer, based on a bandwidth(BW) indicated by the UE capability information or Y can be predefined.

For subframes of one or more RRC_CONNECTED UEs to monitor EnhancedMachine-Type Communication (eMTC) Physical Downlink Control Channel(MPDCCH) without reception of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH),the CRS can be muted outside of the NB for MPDCCH monitoring plus/minusX PRBs. For subframes of the one or more RRC_CONNECTED UEs monitoredwith reception of the PDSCH, muting the CRS can be based on a number ofNBs or WBs that cover a PDSCH region and the NB configured for MPDCCHmonitoring.

Muting the CRS for one or more RRC_IDLE UEs with the NB or the WBplus/minus X PRBs can also be based on a NB configured paging monitoringfor frequency domain resources or a paging occasion for time domainresources. The X can be predefined, or is a function of at least one of:a configured maximum PDSCH BW before UE goes to RRC_IDLE mode, aconfigured physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) BW before UE goes toRRC_IDLE mode, a number of PRBs scheduled for MPDCCH monitoring or anumber of PRBs allocated for PDSCH reception.

As it employed in the subject specification, the term “processor” canrefer to substantially any computing processing unit or deviceincluding, but not limited to including, single-core processors;single-processors with software multithread execution capability;multi-core processors; multi-core processors with software multithreadexecution capability; multi-core processors with hardware multithreadtechnology; parallel platforms; and parallel platforms with distributedshared memory. Additionally, a processor can refer to an integratedcircuit, an application specific integrated circuit, a digital signalprocessor, a field programmable gate array, a programmable logiccontroller, a complex programmable logic device, a discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions and/or processes describedherein. Processors can exploit nano-scale architectures such as, but notlimited to, molecular and quantum-dot based transistors, switches andgates, in order to optimize space usage or enhance performance of mobiledevices. A processor can also be implemented as a combination ofcomputing processing units.

In the subject specification, terms such as “store,” “data store,” datastorage,” “database,” and substantially any other information storagecomponent relevant to operation and functionality of a component and/orprocess, refer to “memory components,” or entities embodied in a“memory,” or components including the memory. It is noted that thememory components described herein can be either volatile memory ornonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory.

By way of illustration, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory, forexample, can be included in a memory, non-volatile memory (see below),disk storage (see below), and memory storage (see below). Further,nonvolatile memory can be included in read only memory, programmableread only memory, electrically programmable read only memory,electrically erasable programmable read only memory, or flash memory.Volatile memory can include random access memory, which acts as externalcache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, random accessmemory is available in many forms such as synchronous random accessmemory, dynamic random access memory, synchronous dynamic random accessmemory, double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory,enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory, Synchlink dynamicrandom access memory, and direct Rambus random access memory.Additionally, the disclosed memory components of systems or methodsherein are intended to include, without being limited to including,these and any other suitable types of memory.

Examples can include subject matter such as a method, means forperforming acts or blocks of the method, at least one machine-readablemedium including instructions that, when performed by a machine (e.g., aprocessor with memory, an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like) cause themachine to perform acts of the method or of an apparatus or system forconcurrent communication using multiple communication technologiesaccording to embodiments and examples described herein.

In a second set of examples for the various aspects/embodiments herein,the below examples are envisioned as herein below, as also describedabove.

Example 1 can be an apparatus configured can be be employed in anevolved Node B (eNB), comprising: processing circuitry configured to:generate a cell reference signal (CRS) muting based on CRS mutingconfiguration parameters; and a radio frequency (RF) interface,configured to provide, to RF circuitry, data for transmission related tothe CRS muting.

Example 2 can include Example 1, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to: process a user equipment (UE) capabilityinformation that indicates a support for the CRS muting; and generatethe CRS muting based on the UE capability information by providing theCRS muting configuration parameters via at least one of: a masterinformation block (MIB), a system information block (SIB), or aUE-dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, including one ormore of: cell-specific parameters or UE-specific parameters.

Example 3 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-2,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to enable anddisable the CRS muting via data control information (DCI) in response toat least a part of the CRS muting configuration parameters beingprovided via the UE-dedicated RRC signaling.

Example 4 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-3,wherein the DCI comprises a DCI format including at least one of: DCIformat 6-0A, DCI format 6-1A, or DCI format 0, and the processingcircuitry is further configured to indicate a set of subframes with theCRS muting based on the CRS muting configuration parameters comprising aperiodicity and the set of subframes within a period of the periodicityaccording to: a number of subframes or a bitmap corresponding to one ormore subframes of the set of subframes.

Example 5 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-4,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate theCRS muting configuration parameters in one or more of: an RRC or a DCI,wherein the CRS muting configuration parameters comprises one or moreof: one or more frequency domain resources where a CRS is muted, or oneor more indications of a set of subframes where the CRS is muted.

Example 6 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-5,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate theCRS muting only outside of a central six physical resource blocks (PRBs)plus/minus Y PRBs on each side of the central six PRBs, wherein Ycomprises a non-negative integer.

Example 7 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-6,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate anindication of a set of subframes with CRS that will not be muted.

Example 8 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-7,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate theCRS muting by performing a determination of whether any RRC_IDLE UE thatdoes not support the CRS muting is camped on a cell, and in response tothe determination that no RRC_IDLE UE that does not support the CRSmuting is camped on the cell, generating the CRS muting based on anarrowband (NB) or wideband (WB), plus/minus X PRBs, wherein X comprisesa non-negative integer.

Example 9 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-8,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate theCRS muting not within N subframes of at least one of: before, after orduring monitored subframes of Enhanced Machine-Type Communication (eMTC)Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH) subframes outside of the NBfor MPDCCH monitoring plus/minus the X PRBs, or outside of the NB forthe monitored MPDCCH plus/minus the X PRBs in response to a maximumbandwidth (BW) of a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) being about1.4 MHz, and outside of the WB plus/minus the X PRBs in response to themaximum BW of the PDSCH being about 5 MHz where the WB includes the NBconfigured for MPDCCH monitoring.

Example 10 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-9,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to keep the CRSmuting outside a frequency region not within N subframes of at least oneof: before, after or during MPDCCH monitoring subframes or PDSCHscheduled subframes, based on one or more criteria, wherein the one ormore criteria comprise at least one of: each valid downlink subframe,subframes related to MPDCCH transmission, an MPDCCH search space, or aPDSCH transmission, wherein N comprises a non-negative integer.

Example 11 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-10,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generating theCRS muting to an RRC_IDLE UE being camped to the cell outside of the NB,or the WB, plus/minus the X PRBs, wherein the NB or WB includesfrequency resources configured for paging monitoring, and time domainresources where CRS is not muted is based on one or more paging criteriaof the UE monitored paging region comprises N subframes of at least oneof: before, after, or during a paging occasion, wherein N is anon-negative integer.

Example 12 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-11,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to indicate X viaRRC, DCI or a system information, in response to X not being predefined;in response to X being a predefined set of values, indicate an indexvalue within the predefined set of values or an absolute value; indicateX as a function of at least one of: a configured maximum PDSCH BW or aconfigured maximum PUSCH BW; or indicate X as a function of a number ofPRBs allocated for a PDSCH, a PUSCH, or an MPDCCH.

Example 13 is an apparatus configured to be employed in a user equipment(UE), comprising: processing circuitry configured to: generate a UEcapability information that indicates a support for cell referencesignal (CRS) muting; and process data of a physical channel with CRSmuting based on the UE capability information, wherein the CRS muting isoutside of a narrow band (NB) or a wide band (WB) plus/minus X physicalresource blocks (PRBs), wherein X is a non-negative integer; and a radiofrequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RF circuitry, datafor transmission based on the CRS muting.

Example 14 can include the subject matter of Example 13, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to process one or more CRSmuting configuration parameters via at least one of: a masterinformation block (MIB), a system information block (SIB), or aUE-dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, wherein the one ormore CRS muting configuration parameters include one or more of:cell-specific parameters or UE-specific parameters, comprising a set ofCRS muted subframes, a set of PRBs, NBs, or WBs where CRS is muted.

Example 15 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 13-14,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to process one ormore indications of the one or more CRS muting configuration parameters,wherein the one or more indications comprise a bitmap, a resource index,or a periodicity with a set of subframes with the CRS muting in a periodof the periodicity, and process the one or more CRS muting configurationparameters in one or more of: data control information (DCI) or the RRCsignaling.

Example 16 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 13-15,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to process anindication of the CRS muting that is only outside of a central sixphysical resource blocks (PRBs) plus/minus Y PRBs, wherein Y comprises anon-negative integer as the indication of the CRS muting that is onlyoutside of the central six PRBs based on a maximum bandwidth supportedin the UE capability information and relative to each side of thecentral six PRBs.

Example 17 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 13-16,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to process theCRS muting outside of the time resources that is N subframes of at leastone of: before, after or during monitored subframes of EnhancedMachine-Type Communication (eMTC) Physical Downlink Control Channel(MPDCCH) subframes, and is outside of the NB for MPDCCH monitoringplus/minus the X PRBs, or outside of the NB for the monitored MPDCCHplus/minus the X PRBs in response to a maximum bandwidth (BW) of aPhysical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) being about 1.4 MHz, andoutside of the WB plus/minus the X PRBs in response to the maximum BW ofthe PDSCH being about 5 MHz where the WB includes the NB for MPDCCHmonitoring.

Example 18 can include the subject matter of Examples 13-17, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to process the CRS mutingoutside of time resources that is N subframes of at least one of:before, after or during subframes scheduled for PDSCH reception, and isoutside of the NB including PDSCH allocated frequency resourcesplus/minus the X PRBs in response to a maximum bandwidth (BW) of aPhysical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) being about 1.4 MHz, andoutside of the WB including PDSCH allocated frequency resourcesplus/minus the X PRBs in response to the maximum BW of the PDSCH beingabout 5 MHz.

Example 19 can include the subject matter of Examples 13-18, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to process the CRS mutingoutside of a frequency region of N subframes of at least one of: before,after or during MPDCCH subframes or scheduled PDSCH subframes, based onone or more criteria, wherein the one or more criteria comprise at leastone of: each valid downlink subframe, or subframes related to MPDCCHtransmission, an MPDCCH search space, or a PDSCH transmission, wherein Ncomprises a non-negative integer.

Example 20 can include the subject matter of Example 13-19, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to process CRS muting for anRRC_IDLE UE where the CRS muting is outside of the frequency region withthe NB configured for paging monitoring plus/minus X PRBs and Nsubframes of least one of: before, after or during a paging occasionconfigured to carry a paging DCI in MPDCCH and a paging record in PDSCH.

Example 21 is a computer readable storage medium storing executableinstructions that, in response to execution, cause one or moreprocessors of an evolved Node B (eNB) to perform operations comprising:generating a CRS muting in a physical channel wherein the CRS muting isgenerated outside of a narrow band (NB) or a wide band (WB) plus/minus Xphysical resource blocks (PRBs), wherein X is a non-negative integer,based on a CRS muting capability.

Example 22 can include the subject matter of Example 21, wherein theoperations further comprise: providing a bitmap or a resource indexindicating CRS muting configuration parameters comprising a set of CRSmuted subframes, physical resource blocks (PRBs), NBs, or WBs where CRSis muted, via at least one of: a master information block (MIB), asystem information block (SIB), or a radio resource control (RRC)signaling; or activating and deactivating one or more of the CRS mutingconfiguration parameters or CRS muting resources via data controlinformation (DCI) via a radio network temporary identified (RNTI) forthe CRS muting or reusing a semi persistent scheduling cell RNTI (SPS-CRNTI) with a DCI format 0 used for activation/deactivation of the CRSmuting.

Example 23 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 21-22,wherein the operations further comprise: determining the cell referencesignal (CRS) muting capability based on a user equipment (UE) capabilityinformation; and generating the CRS muting only outside of a central sixphysical resource blocks (PRBs) plus/minus Y PRBs, wherein Y comprises anon-negative integer, based on a bandwidth (BW) indicated by the UEcapability information.

Example 24 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 21-23,wherein the operations further comprise: for subframes of one or moreRRC_CONNECTED UEs to monitor Enhanced Machine-Type Communication (eMTC)Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH) without reception of physicaldownlink shared channel (PDSCH), muting the CRS outside of the NB forMPDCCH monitoring or the WB including the NB for MPDCCH monitoringplus/minus X PRBs, based on a PDSCH bandwidth of the UE capabilityinformation; and for subframes of the one or more RRC_CONNECTED UEsmonitored with reception of the PDSCH, muting the CRS based on a numberof NBs or WBs that cover a PDSCH region and the NB configured for MPDCCHmonitoring.

Example 25 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 21-24,wherein the operations further comprise: muting the CRS for one or moreRRC_IDLE UEs outside of the NB or the WB plus/minus X PRBs based on a NBconfigured for paging monitoring for frequency domain resources and Nsubframes of at least one of: before, after or during paging occasionfor time domain resources.

Example 26 can include the subject matter of any one of Examples 21-25,wherein the X is predefined, or is a function of at least one of: aconfigured maximum PDSCH BW, a configured physical uplink shared channel(PUSCH) BW, a number of PRBs scheduled for MPDCCH monitoring or a numberof PRBs allocated for PDSCH reception.

Example 27 can include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method described in or related to any of examples1-26, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 28 can include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 29 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 30 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-26, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 31 can include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-26, or portions thereof.

Example 32 can include a method of communicating in a wireless networkas shown and described herein.

Example 33 can include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example 34 cam include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

It is to be understood that aspects described herein can be implementedby hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. Whenimplemented in software, functions can be stored on or transmitted overas one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium.Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of acomputer program from one place to another. A storage media or acomputer readable storage device can be any available media that can beaccessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way ofexample, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can compriseRAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible and/ornon-transitory medium, that can be used to carry or store desiredinformation or executable instructions. Also, any connection is properlytermed a computer-readable medium. For example, if software istransmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using acoaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line(DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave,then coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wirelesstechnologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in thedefinition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compactdisc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD),floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce datamagnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

Various illustrative logics, logical blocks, modules, and circuitsdescribed in connection with aspects disclosed herein can be implementedor performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signalprocessor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform functions described herein. Ageneral-purpose processor can be a microprocessor, but, in thealternative, processor can be any conventional processor, controller,microcontroller, or state machine. A processor can also be implementedas a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of aDSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration. Additionally, at least one processor can comprise one ormore modules operable to perform one or more of the s and/or actionsdescribed herein.

For a software implementation, techniques described herein can beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform functions described herein. Software codes can be stored inmemory units and executed by processors. Memory unit can be implementedwithin processor or external to processor, in which case memory unit canbe communicatively coupled to processor through various means as isknown in the art. Further, at least one processor can include one ormore modules operable to perform functions described herein.

Techniques described herein can be used for various wirelesscommunication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA and othersystems. The terms “system” and “network” are often usedinterchangeably. A CDMA system can implement a radio technology such asUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), CDMA1800, etc. UTRA includesWideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and other variants of CDMA. Further, CDMA1800covers IS-1800, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA system can implementa radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications(GSM). An OFDMA system can implement a radio technology such as EvolvedUTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.18, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of UniversalMobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)is a release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA, which employs OFDMA on downlinkand SC-FDMA on uplink. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE and GSM are described indocuments from an organization named “3rd Generation PartnershipProject” (3GPP). Additionally, CDMA1800 and UMB are described indocuments from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project2” (3GPP2). Further, such wireless communication systems canadditionally include peer-to-peer (e.g., mobile-to-mobile) ad hocnetwork systems often using unpaired unlicensed spectrums, 802.xxwireless LAN, BLUETOOTH and any other short- or long-range, wirelesscommunication techniques.

Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), whichutilizes single carrier modulation and frequency domain equalization isa technique that can be utilized with the disclosed aspects. SC-FDMA hassimilar performance and essentially a similar overall complexity asthose of OFDMA system. SC-FDMA signal has lower peak-to-average powerratio (PAPR) because of its inherent single carrier structure. SC-FDMAcan be utilized in uplink communications where lower PAPR can benefit amobile terminal in terms of transmit power efficiency.

Moreover, various aspects or features described herein can beimplemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture usingstandard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term “article ofmanufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass a computer programaccessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. Forexample, computer-readable media can include but are not limited tomagnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips,etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk(DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROM, card,stick, key drive, etc.). Additionally, various storage media describedherein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readablemedia for storing information. The term “machine-readable medium” caninclude, without being limited to, wireless channels and various othermedia capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s)and/or data. Additionally, a computer program product can include acomputer readable medium having one or more instructions or codesoperable to cause a computer to perform functions described herein.

Communications media embody computer-readable instructions, datastructures, program modules or other structured or unstructured data ina data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrier wave orother transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery ortransport media. The term “modulated data signal” or signals refers to asignal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed insuch a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By way ofexample, and not limitation, communication media include wired media,such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless mediasuch as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

Further, the actions of a method or algorithm described in connectionwith aspects disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or a combination thereof. Asoftware module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory,EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, aCD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. Anexemplary storage medium can be coupled to processor, such thatprocessor can read information from, and write information to, storagemedium. In the alternative, storage medium can be integral to processor.Further, in some aspects, processor and storage medium can reside in anASIC. Additionally, ASIC can reside in a user terminal. In thealternative, processor and storage medium can reside as discretecomponents in a user terminal. Additionally, in some aspects, the sand/or actions of a method or algorithm can reside as one or anycombination or set of codes and/or instructions on a machine-readablemedium and/or computer readable medium, which can be incorporated into acomputer program product.

The above description of illustrated embodiments of the subjectdisclosure, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intendedto be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed embodiments to the preciseforms disclosed. While specific embodiments and examples are describedherein for illustrative purposes, various modifications are possiblethat are considered within the scope of such embodiments and examples,as those skilled in the relevant art can recognize.

In this regard, while the disclosed subject matter has been described inconnection with various embodiments and corresponding Figures, whereapplicable, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments can beused or modifications and additions can be made to the describedembodiments for performing the same, similar, alternative, or substitutefunction of the disclosed subject matter without deviating therefrom.Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to anysingle embodiment described herein, but rather should be construed inbreadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims below.

In particular regard to the various functions performed by the abovedescribed components (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), theterms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe suchcomponents are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, toany component or structure which performs the specified function of thedescribed component (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even thoughnot structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performsthe function in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations of thedisclosure. In addition, while a particular feature can have beendisclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, suchfeature can be combined with one or more other features of the otherimplementations as can be desired and advantageous for any given orparticular application.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus configured to be employed for a basestation, comprising: processing circuitry configured to: process a userequipment (UE) capability information that indicates a support for acell reference signal (CRS) muting; provide CRS muting configurationparameters based on the UE capability information via a systeminformation block (SIB), the CRS muting configuration parametersincluding a cell-specific parameter or a UE-specific parameter; andtransmit the CRS at frequency locations based on the CRS mutingconfiguration parameters.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CRSmuting configuration parameters are provided such that the CRS istransmitted within a 6 physical resource blocks (PRBs) channel bandwidthof the UE.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CRS mutingconfiguration parameters are provided such that the CRS is transmittedwithin a 6 physical resource blocks (PRBs) channel bandwidth of the UEor a 24 PRBs channel bandwidth of the UE.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the CRS muting configuration parameters are provided such thatthe CRS is transmitted within a 6 physical resource blocks (PRBs)channel bandwidth of the UE plus/minus X PRBs, wherein X is anon-negative integer.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CRSmuting configuration parameters are provided such that the CRS istransmitted within a central six physical resource blocks (PRBs) of acell bandwidth.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CRS mutingconfiguration parameters are provided such that the CRS is transmittedwithin a central six physical resource blocks (PRBs) of a cell bandwidthplus/minus Y PRBs on each side of the central six PRBs, wherein Ycomprises a non-negative integer.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe CRS muting configuration parameters further comprise one or moreindications of a set of subframes where the CRS is muted or not muted.8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the CRS muting configurationparameters comprise a periodicity and the set of subframes within aperiod of the periodicity according to: a number of subframes or abitmap corresponding to one or more subframes of the set of subframes.9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to not transmit the CRS, based on the CRS mutingconfiguration parameters, by performing a determination of whether anyRRC_IDLE UE that does not support the CRS muting is camped on a cell,and in response to the determination that no RRC_IDLE UE that does notsupport the CRS muting is camped on the cell, generating the CRS mutingbased on a narrowband (NB) or wideband (WB), plus/minus X PRBs, whereinX comprises a non-negative integer.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to not transmitthe CRS to an RRC_IDLE UE being camped to a cell, based on the CRSmuting configuration parameters, outside of a narrowband (NB) or awideband (WB) plus/minus X PRBs, wherein the NB or the WB includesfrequency resources configured for paging monitoring and time domainresources where CRS is not muted based on one or more paging criteria ofa UE monitored paging region comprising N subframes of at least one of:before, after, or during a paging occasion, wherein N is a non-negativeinteger.
 11. An apparatus configured to be employed for a user equipment(UE), comprising: processing circuitry configured to: generate a UEcapability information that indicates a support for cell referencesignal (CRS) muting; receive CRS muting configuration parameters basedon the UE capability information via a system information block (SIB);and process data of a physical channel based on the CRS mutingconfiguration parameters, such that the CRS is received within sixphysical resource blocks (PRBs) or 24 PRBs within a cell bandwidth; anda radio frequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RFcircuitry, data for transmission based on the CRS muting configurationparameters.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the CRS is received,based on the CRS muting configuration parameters, within a central sixPRBs of the cell bandwidth.
 13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein theCRS is received, based on the CRS muting configuration parameters,within a central six PRBs of the cell bandwidth and plus/minus Y PRBs,wherein Y comprises a non-negative integer based on a maximum bandwidthsupported in the UE capability information and relative to each side ofthe central six PRBs.
 14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the CRSmuting configuration parameters include cell-specific parameters orUE-specific parameters, comprising a set of CRS muted subframes, a setof PRBs, NBs, or WBs where CRS is muted.
 15. The apparatus of claim 11,wherein the CRS is received, based on the CRS muting configurationparameters, within six PRBs plus/minus X PRBs in response to a maximumdownlink bandwidth being 1.4 MHz.
 16. The apparatus of claim 11, whereinthe processing circuitry is further configured to process the CRS mutingoutside of a frequency region of N subframes of at least one of: before,after or during MPDCCH subframes or scheduled PDSCH subframes, based onone or more criteria, wherein the one or more criteria comprise at leastone of: each valid downlink subframe, or subframes related to MPDCCHtransmission, an MPDCCH search space, or a PDSCH transmission, wherein Ncomprises a non-negative integer.
 17. The apparatus of claim 11, whereinthe processing circuitry is further configured to process CRS muting foran RRC_IDLE UE where the CRS muting is outside of frequency region witha narrowband (NB) configured for paging monitoring plus/minus X PRBs andN subframes of least one of: before, after or during a paging occasionconfigured to carry a paging DCI in MPDCCH and a paging record in PDSCH.18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to process one or more indications of the CRS mutingconfiguration parameters, wherein the one or more indications comprise abitmap, a resource index, or a periodicity with a set of subframes withthe CRS muting in a period of the periodicity.
 19. A method for cellreference signal (CRS) muting of a base station, comprising: providing acell reference signal (CRS) muting capability by CRS mutingconfiguration parameters via a system information block (SIB), the CRSmuting configuration parameters indicating resource allocation fortransmitting CRS and including a cell-specific parameter or a userequipment (UE)-specific parameter; and transmitting the CRS within 6physical resource blocks (PRBs) channel bandwidth or 24 PRBs channelbandwidth of a UE based on the CRS muting configuration parameters. 20.The method of claim 19, further comprising: transmitting the CRS withina central 6 PRBs of a cell bandwidth based on the cell bandwidthindicated by a UE capability information.